By Lu Xi, Japan

In 2015, a friend of mine got me to start believing in Almighty God. After receiving Almighty God’s work of the last days, I hungrily devoured the word of God, and through it came to understand many mysteries of the truth that I had not known before, such as: God’s work of saving mankind is divided into three stages, how God carries out His work in every stage, the connection between the three stages of work, what the incarnation is, and why God must become flesh. This made me even more certain that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned. Since I had the guidance of God’s words, I no longer passed the time by watching TV like I had in the past, and my husband said to me: “Your faith in God has got you reading, that’s better than watching Korean soap operas every day. It really makes me happy.” Although my husband didn’t go to assemblies, he had always believed there was a God since his mother was a believer—he also supported my faith in God. Ordinarily, whenever I’d gain some sort of enlightenment from God’s word I would share it with my husband, and he also approved of having faith. Later on, my husband got curious as to why I was always mentioning “Almighty God” when it was the Lord Jesus that his mother believed in, and so he went online to find out about The Church of Almighty God. But unexpectedly, what he saw was that the Internet was rife with rumors, false testimony and blasphemy against Almighty God. He was deeply poisoned by this and started to oppose my faith in Almighty God. Since I had read the word of Almighty God and heard the fellowship and testimonies of brothers and sisters, I was already certain in my heart that Almighty God is the one true God, and I knew that those things online were just rumors and lies meant to deceive people. However, my husband was taken in by the rumors and failed to understand the reality of the situation, no matter how I tried to persuade him and give him testimony on God’s work in the last days, he wouldn’t listen.

After a period of time, with the help of Sister Yinghe, who repeatedly shared fellowship and testimonies with my husband, he finally reluctantly agreed to look into God’s work in the last days. However, my husband was influenced by his mother and was relatively conservative about the Bible, so in order to solve this problem of his, some sisters recommended that I watch the evangelical movie Disclose the Mystery About the Bible with my husband. However, I didn’t have him do that. Instead, I acted on my own initiative and had him watch the movie Break Through the Snare, which exposes how the CCP government and the antichrists of the religious world resist God’s work. After seeing just a part of the film, he said: “The CCP is an atheistic government, and China is an atheistic country that has always persecuted religious believers. The Church of Almighty God is being cracked down on by the CCP government, and we are merely an arm, which can never wrestle down a leg. What if we went back to China and got arrested? Besides, all sorts of things are said online, and I can’t tell what is true and what is false. I still think you shouldn’t believe in this.” I urged my husband to finish watching the film and then make his decision, but he wouldn’t. Seeing that I insisted on keeping my faith, one time he rushed at me in anger, saying: “If you insist on believing then believe, if you want to get arrested then get arrested. But if you do get arrested, don’t say that I’m your husband! Don’t you know that right now I’m under a lot of pressure? If I don’t believe, I’m afraid this is the true God, but if I do believe, there’s all that stuff online plus I’d be in danger of being arrested. So who should I really listen to?” Seeing my husband’s suffering from being constrained by those online rumors, I realized how harmful the rumors and false testimony fabricated by the CCP government really are. Not only do they hinder people’s acceptance of the true way, but they also ruin family relationships. Apparently, these people who fabricate rumors and provide false testimony are the brood of Satan the devil, pure and simple!

One day, my husband came home from work and saw that I was in a gathering. His face immediately fell, then he threw open the door and left. Dinner time came and went, but I still hadn’t seen him return—I couldn’t help but start to worry. He finally returned home at eight o’clock but he was still holding on to his anger. I had planned to fix a meal for him, but he said to me coldly: “Don’t bother! Since you won’t listen to me and you’re continuing to keep your faith, from now on keep out of my affairs. From here on out I’ll just be responsible for our living expenses, and whatever I do outside of this house has nothing to do with you! Even if I do anything that would let down this family, it’s still none of your business!” Hearing this from my husband, I became more and more upset the more I thought about it. That night I tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, constantly praying to God in my heart: “Oh God! My husband has been deceived by rumors and is trying to clamp down on my faith in You, and he’s saying such heartless things. What should I do? Please show me the way! I do not want to part from You.” The next morning, I suddenly recalled some words of God that we had fellowshiped about in a gathering: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men and the interference of men. Behind every step of work that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … When God and Satan do battle in the spiritual realm, how should you satisfy God, and how should you stand firm in your testimony to Him? You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through the enlightenment of God’s word I was somewhat awakened: During this time I had always been fixing my gaze on my husband, and feeling like there were so many shams and scams in the world today, that everywhere was brimming with lies and deception, especially with all the lies and false statements coming from the CCP media. I thought that anyone with a little brains could think about it for a second and then realize that these words online attacking, judging and condemning Almighty God are all lies and nonsense, that they shouldn’t be deceived and confused by them. But unfortunately, my husband believed the rumors he heard online, and I really felt that he shouldn’t have. At that time I could no longer look outside of myself for the root cause. It was God trying me, using this to test whether or not my faith in Him is true, to see if I am able to hold firm in the true way while being attacked by Satan, and whether or not I can bear testimony to God while in the midst of this trial. As I realized God’s will, the haze that had enveloped my heart and mind dispersed, and my heart brightened quite a bit.

The next day while we were eating breakfast, my husband was still looking dour and not speaking to me, but since I had the guidance of God’s words, I was not as worried or scared as the day before. I said to him calmly: “I believe in God and I have never done anything to let this family down. If you want to do so, then that’s just you willing to be a degenerate, it’s not because of my faith in God.” Hearing me say this, my husband took on a softer tone, and he said: “Didn’t I say those things only because you wouldn’t listen to me and kept insisting on keeping your faith?” Afterward he didn’t say anything else, and the storm passed. Thanks be to God! It was God’s words that gave me the strength to triumph over Satan’s temptations!

But a good thing doesn’t last forever. A month later my husband was once again getting online and reading those rumors. One day when he came home from work he saw that I was sitting at the computer, and started to yell at me: “I think you’ve gone mad! I’ve thought it over: Either you give up your faith at once or we need to get a divorce. I’ve also thought about the issue of our two kids; you can take both of them, but I’m guessing you won’t be able to stay in Japan, so take our children back to Shanghai! I’ll give you our apartment in Shanghai, and each month I’ll also give you 100,000 yen in child support. And if you don’t want the children then that’s fine too, whatever you choose! I’ve even looked into the divorce proceedings. All we need to do is go to the ward office and both sign a divorce agreement, so just tell me where you stand!” After I heard him say all that, my heart was pounding and I felt like my head was abuzz. I just sat there unable to say anything, and I even forgot to pray to God. All I could think was, if we got divorced, what about the children? They could come with me, but I didn’t have financial means! If they didn’t come with me, it would be such a pity if they didn’t have a mother! And then there were my parents, friends and other relatives, what would they think of me? Being abroad was originally such a great thing, but if we got divorced then how could my parents keep their heads up in front of others…. So, I didn’t give my husband an answer; I just told him that I had to think about it. I went to my room and started to cry bitterly. The more I thought about my life after the divorce the more pain I felt. I didn’t sleep at all that night, and my tears soaked my pillowcase. The next day, my husband left for work without saying a word, and only then did I come before God in prayer, asking Him to give me more strength so that I could triumph over the weakness of the flesh. As I was living mired in suffering and at a loss as for what to do, I told some brothers and sisters about what had happened. They all encouraged and consoled me, saying that this was one of Satan’s temptations that I was going through, and helped me learn how to rely on God. They said I could not lose my faith or misunderstand God. They also shared the experiences and testimony of other brothers and sisters with me, and fellowshiped about how God is the One who saves mankind, that Satan alone afflicts us, makes us suffer, and destroys our relationships with other people. They also read a passage from the word of Almighty God to me: “When people have yet to be saved, their lives are often interfered with, and even controlled by, Satan. In other words, people who have not been saved are prisoners to Satan, they have no freedom, they have not been relinquished by Satan, they are not qualified or entitled to worship God, and they are closely pursued and viciously attacked by Satan. Such people have no happiness to speak of, they have no right to a normal existence to speak of, and moreover they have no dignity to speak of. Only if you stand up and do battle with Satan, using your faith in God and obedience to, and fear of God as the weapons with which to fight a life-and-death battle with Satan, such that you fully defeat Satan and cause it to turn tail and become cowardly whenever it sees you, so that it completely abandons its attacks and accusations against you—only then will you be saved and become free” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s word made me realize that whenever I wasn’t practicing my faith in God, I was living entirely under the domain of Satan, that I was a slave and plaything of Satan. After gaining my faith, I came out of Satan’s camp and returned before the presence of God; because I forsook Satan, it was unwilling to be defeated, so it used my husband to attack my weak points. It used the divorce to compel me to betray God and return to its domain. This truly was the trickery of Satan. I was worried about what to do with the children after the divorce, how the people from my hometown would see me, and how my parents could hold their heads up in front of their neighbors. All of these thoughts came from Satan’s disruptions, and if I were controlled by these thoughts then I would be controlled by Satan, eventually leading me to distance myself from God or even deny Him, and once again return to Satan’s camp. My faith and my worship of the Creator are completely positive things, it is heaven’s law and earth’s principle, and no man has the right to interfere with it, yet Satan tries everything to control me, to push me into betraying God. Satan truly is so despicable and so hateful! At that moment, I knew that I lacked the faith to face Satan’s temptations on my own, but I was willing to rely on God and rely on the guidance of God’s word to take the path in front of me, and I was determined to stand by God’s side and bear witness to God; there was no way that I would give in to Satan. When this occurred to me, my restless heart finally found some sure footing and my suffering abated.

Later on, some brothers and sisters again shared God’s word with me: “Without God’s permission, it is difficult for Satan to touch even a drop of water or grain of sand upon the land; without God’s permission, Satan is not even free to move the ants about upon the land, let alone mankind, who was created by God. In the eyes of God, Satan is inferior to the lilies on the mountain, to the birds flying in the air, to the fish in the sea, and to the maggots on the earth. Its role among all things is to serve all things, and work for mankind, and serve God’s work and His plan of management. Regardless of how malicious its nature, and how evil its essence, the only thing it can do is to dutifully abide by its function: being of service to God, and providing a counterpoint to God. Such is the substance and position of Satan. Its essence is unconnected to life, unconnected to power, unconnected to authority; it is merely a plaything in God’s hands, just a machine in service to God!” (“God Himself, the Unique I” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s word I came to realize that God’s authority is supreme, God controls the heavens and earth and all things, and everything of ours is in His hands. My divorce and my family are also in God’s hands, and without God’s permission there is nothing that Satan can do. Whether I got divorced or not was all under the sovereignty and predestination of God—it was not my husband who had the final say, so I was willing to submit to the sovereignty and designs of God. I thought about unbelievers who get divorces. Some do it for money, some do it because their partners have affairs, and some do it because their relationship just falls apart…. My husband wanted to divorce me because I chose to believe in God and take the correct path of life, to pursue the truth and live out a meaningful life. This is honorable, not shameful! Right then these words from God came to mind: “Faith is like a single log bridge: Those who cling abjectly to life will have difficulty in crossing it, but those who are ready to sacrifice themselves can pass over, sure of foot and worry-free. If man harbors timid and fearful thoughts, it is because Satan has fooled them, afraid that we will cross the bridge of faith to enter into God. Satan is trying in every way possible to send us its thoughts. We should at every moment pray for God to illuminate us with His light, at every moment rely on God to purge Satan’s poison from within us, practice within our spirit at every moment how to come close to God, and let God have dominion over our whole being” (“Chapter 6” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words once again gave me faith and strength, a path to follow, as well as the courage to face my husband. That’s right—the only thing I could do was throw caution to the wind. No matter what my future path held, there could be no wrong in taking the path of faith!

After my husband returned home that evening, I told him plain and simple: “You don’t want me to believe in Almighty God, but for me that is impossible. If you want to get a divorce then we’ll do it your way!” My husband was a little dumbstruck after hearing this, and left with no other options, he said: “Apparently I can’t control you anymore! There’s all sorts of stuff online—if I don’t put you under control, then if someday something happened to you I would be responsible. I’m just using this divorce as a way to threaten you, but you still won’t renounce your faith in God. If something happens to you because of your faith, your mom will know, so don’t put the blame on me.” From then on, he no longer concerned himself with my faith in God; our relationship made a miraculous recovery and he no longer talked about getting a divorce. This is how the storm of divorce that had been caused by the CCP government’s rumors was quelled.

Later on there was one time when my younger daughter and I both caught a cold. At that time it was raining lightly, but my older daughter needed to go to practice, so I had no choice but to take her, dragging my exhausted body along with my younger daughter. After my husband learned about this, he said: “You worked hard today. Lu Xi, I’ve noticed a change in you recently. You’ve been more loving with the children and really diligent.” Hearing these words from my husband, I thanked Almighty God within my heart because I knew that it was Almighty God’s words that had changed me. With God’s words as my foundation, I have direction in my life, I know what proper humanity is and what a corrupt disposition is. Only by conducting yourself according to the word of God can you live out proper humanity. As a result, I no longer let my temper flare up randomly with my children, and I no longer live life just for the sake of enjoyment. Slowly, I came to discover that my husband had also changed. In the past he always felt that he was always the one who was right, but now when handling some affairs he will seek my opinion. He has even given his friends testimony of God’s authority and sovereignty. Seeing these things, my heart is full of gratitude. Oh God, You are truly almighty! Your words are our life force, and no matter how aggressive or furious Satan’s force is, so long as we have Your words to guide us we will be able to triumph over all of Satan’s temptations, and live peacefully under Your care and guardianship.

Thanks be to God for arranging all of this for me, and for allowing me to experience His word and understand many truths. Through experiencing these kinds of situations I have seen that Satan truly is despicable, that it thinks up every possible means to get people to leave God and become its prey for it to devour. At the same time I have also seen that God controls all things and arranges everything; without God’s permission, it doesn’t matter how much more frantic Satan becomes. It will not be able to do anything, it will not be able to accomplish anything—it won’t even be able to touch a single hair on our heads. So long as we have faith, and rely on God’s word to live, then we will be able to overcome Satan’s dark influence, stand witness for God and bring glory to God! The facts also prove that the rumors and false testimony online are untenable. Facts and time will prove everything, and in the end these rumors will go down in history with eternal ignominy, just like “Atheism,” “Darwin’s theory of evolution” and “Communism.” They will become a mark of eternal shame for the CCP government. God’s sheep will listen to God’s voice, no matter how great Satan’s obstruction, all those who sincerely believe in God and love the truth, will be able to discard the deception and bonds of rumors, coming before God and being gained by God. This is because this is something that God wants to accomplish—none of Satan’s forces can stand in the way!